


Superlatives in Their Realm

by PFDiva



Category: Friends at the Table (Podcast)
Genre: Friendship, Gen, Male-Female Friendship, Other, bonding over adventurer lovers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-06
Updated: 2018-05-06
Packaged: 2019-05-03 01:35:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,453
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14557992
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PFDiva/pseuds/PFDiva
Summary: Life happens, even as the world crumbles around you.





	Superlatives in Their Realm

Emmanuel didn't notice Rosana at first, not really. She was another Velisian refugee who discovered that she rather liked apples through his crepes. She was polite and tipped well for the time she spent. Sometimes she came with other Velisians, who marveled that Rosemerrow was so much more devout than they'd expected and how wonderful. It wasn't his concern. He made and served crepes.

And then the drunkard came. He stumbled into the cafe stinking of strong spirits and cursing Rosemerrow, cursing Nacre, cursing Ordenna. Emmanuel rather agreed on that last point, but the rest was no good.

Today (or this cycle of two moons, he supposed), Rosana had come with friends, devout followers of Samothes. Emmanuel was stuck near her table, not wanting to attract this angry man's attention. It gave him the prime position to hear the women mutter to each other that this should not be the way it is and they understood where he was coming from and someone should do something.

Emmanuel's braver coworkers, the Rosemerrow natives, they tried to calm the man down, to appease him so that he'd stop making a scene and he took a swing. He missed, but Emmanuel saw Rosana's shoulders square, her hands clenching into fists on the table before she got to her feet.

"Tobias Anthony Rides-With-The Dark!"

She belted out the name like it was a weapon, and in her mouth, it was. The murmur of conversation throughout the café fell silent. Tobias flinched like he'd been struck, drunkenly stumbling around to face her.

"You shame us," she told the man, her voice vibrating with quiet emotion. "These people have worked just as hard and suffered just as much and you bring shame to Velis and to Samothes."

"You don't know--"

"I don't know?" The question dropped into the sympathetic hisses and scattered beginnings of complaint like a stone into water, spreading ripples of silence. Tobias and Rosana's companions, and many of the Velisians in the cafe knew something about Rosana that Emmanuel didn't.

"Remind me what I don't know, Tobias Rides-With-The-Dark."

Tobias dissolved into tears in the middle of the café, "At least _your_ husband is still alive!"

Rosana rounded the table then, gathering the man into her arms and gently shushing him. Within an hour, Tobias had been sent back home to take care of his children, while Rosana had been left with a crowd of cooing, clucking worriers. She didn't look like she appreciated it, though she was pleasant enough.

When she next returned to the café, she was alone and Emmanuel refused to take her money.

"My boyfriend is an adventurer, too, but I'm nowhere near as brave as you."

She smiled sadly, "I wouldn't call him an adventurer, and I don't think he'd call himself as much either. He's a warrior of Samothes. He must do what is needed. As his wife, I must do what is needed of me as well." Emannuel nodded sympathetically and politely excused himself to continue working. She left the money anyway.

Over the next few weeks, Emmanuel and Rosana slowly came to know each other, in the piecemeal sort of way one got to know a pleasant customer. When she invited him to a service for Samothes and sunshine, he went. His god was Tristero, but Queen Adelaide never had services in Nacre, so none were held in Rosemerrow. He thought she might forgive him.

Rosana was a sight in the church of Samothes. She knew everyone, had a smile for everyone, even the now-sober Tobias with his daughters and son. Everyone deferred to her, and though she didn't ask for much, she could have. Her husband was better-known than Emmanuel expected.

At Rosana's side in the church, Emmanuel stopped being a Nacre refugee and started being a person again. Just for a little bit. It was nice. He may have cried a bit. Or a lot. Rosana wasn't the sort to judge.

From that point, Emmanuel and Rosana became friends in truth. She was a strong woman, and a stronger person than Emmanuel for sure. She'd spent more time with her husband gone than with him home, and they even had a child together! She wouldn't give specifics on where her son was, for Emmanuel's safety, she insisted, but Emmanuel soon figured out that the boy wasn't with either of his parents. From the sounds of it, neither parent knew whether their son was safe where he was. They just knew he wasn't safe enough with either of them.

The tidbits of Rosana's life that seeped out around the edges of the older woman's words prompted Emmanuel to wonder if he and Lem would ever have the chance to worry about such a decision. He didn't know if Lem wanted children or not. He didn't even know if _he_ wanted children. But gosh did Rosana make her little Benjamin sound worth every bit of worry.

Like all people, she had her doubts and fears and it turned out that Emmanuel was one of the few people who could sympathize. Her Alexander was as different from Lem as two people could be, but both were the only ones of their sort. Superlatives in their realm. And, as Emmanuel and Rosana discussed their respective partners, they came to the hilarious realization that the pair probably worked together.

At the very least, both knew Hella Varal. Rosana seemed to pity the Ordennan, based on what her husband had to say about her. Having met the woman, Emmanuel was less sympathetic.

The pair were enjoying one another's company at the park when the sun came back. There was no fanfare, no build up, just a sudden change from the muted colors the world had been in for what felt like an eternity. The light dazzled both their eyes and they hid their faces together a moment before Rosana let out a triumphant laugh.

"He's done it! He must have found the cause of the darkness!"

Emmanuel shaded his eyes to watch Rosana joyfully dance under the sunlight. She kept turning to look down only to shake her head, as if to herself. It happened twice before Emmanuel realized she was looking for her son.

Not too long after that, the world exploded into strange light, weird darkness, and terror. Rosana began to gather up her flock. All the Velisians she could find, more than a few Rosemerrow natives. Having learned his lesson from Nacre, Emmanuel packed what he could and encouraged those around him to do the same.

He hadn't quite known for certain that Rosana would gather her flock to leave, but he also wasn't surprised to find her amongst the busy people organizing at her particular church. She smiled her relief at the sight of him, cutting through the crowd to take both of his hands in hers.

"Samothes will protect them both."

"I wouldn't be opposed if he used Hella Varal's arm to do it."

Rosana laughed in response to Emmanuel's words, squeezing his hands before putting him to work. There was a lot to pack and a lot of people to get moving.

Emmanuel was the one to suggest they head for the New Archives as the assembled group watched the strange light crisscross Hieron to envelope the deep, sucking darkness. It was a defensible place, bound to have information and maybe even assistance. Also, it was Lem's home. Rosana kindly didn't point out the fact.

The group headed out of Rosemerrow, past Ordennan Anchor, skirting wide around the writhing, twisting darkness and the strange light that raced to contain it. It wasn't an easy journey by any stretch of the imagination, but they made it.

They found the New Archives and the surrounding area in chaos. Then an elf navigated through the crowd with a little boy. Emmanuel watched Rosana reunite with Benjamin for a bit before turning away to give them privacy. He searched the crowd for Lem. Lem should have been easy to spot, and he would have been in Rosemerrow or even Nacre. At the New Archives, Lem was just another orc amongst many.

Emmanuel looked for a long time before he happened to overhear the elf who'd brought Benjamin to Rosana mentioning Lem to an older orc. Possibly a semiotician, Emmanuel didn't know. What he did know--or rather what he learned--was that Lem was no longer around. His compatriots didn't know where he was, only that he was as safe as he ever was, and the elf had taken his place. Emmanuel would have to wait a while longer yet to see Lem. It shouldn't have made him feel better to realize that Rosana's husband wasn't here, either.

But it did.


End file.
